W..
Get the Atkins cookbook - there are a ton of ideas. My ex was Type 2 diabetes (also similar to what you said about emotional eating) and I found the Atkins diet to be tailor made for him. I also found the variety outstanding - we never got sick of eating the same thing.... because we didn't.
I did find he had better success when he didn't 'cheat' by using those new fandangled these-carbs-don't-really-count carbs.... like in tortillas or chips that have upped the amount of fiber or sugar alcohol so it "reduces" carbs. Those, to me, defeat the purpose.
One of the good things is that you don't have to have breakfast for breakfast. Lots of time he would eat leftovers from the night before.... however, he would eat alot of rollups - without a bread..... just sliced ham or turkey (thicker - not shaved) rolled around a slice of cheese. I also made him egg or chicken salad (no sugar - just chicken, mayo, garlic, parm cheese, celery, onion) and he would eat that just with a spoon out of a bowl.
One of things I did was do index cards - 90 of them (that's 3 meals a day for 30 days). Some of our faves duplicated, but you would just pull a card for each meal.
Some of my faves:
*egg salad - you can also eat this out of a tomato or green pepper as well as just out of the bowl. I also would sometimes hollow out a cucumber if I wanted to be cute.
*deviled eggs. Remember though you are only doing mayo, mustard and the yolk. No sugar.
*scramble eggs with any sort of ingredient that has no carbs. I kept baggies in the freezer of sausage, onion, garlic, ham, pepperoni, chicken, green pepper, tomato, shrooms, cheese. Then you can scramble quick (or you can do omelets on Sunday and freeze 5 of them and you have b'fast for a week)!
*meat roll ups - I baked a spiral sliced ham each month (no glaze) and then cubed some and left some sliced to wrap around cheese. You can also do the same thing with a baked turkey breast.
Chili- no beans. I did hamburger, red gold brand tomatoes are lowest in carbs and I used them sparingly, chili powder, onion, garlic, cheese and sour cream. I still eat this now and I'm not on the Diet.
You can also do chicken chili.
You can have chef salad with sliced egg, ham, turkey, cheese and then blue cheese dressing. Or any cesear salad and add chicken.
I cooked pot roast every couple of weeks. With celery, cauliflower, onion. Then I would make stew/soup for the next night.
Also you can eat meat - any meat. We did pork chops, steak, grilled chicken. Pick a veggie - broccoli with butter and parm cheese, green beans with slivered almonds, sauteed asparagus.
cucumbers are a great substitute for 'chips'. you can also get carrots sliced to look like chips. You can then dip them in ranch dressing for a snack - I made the dip myself with sour cream and the hidden valley ranch packet.
FYI - my husband lost 75 pounds in about 10 months. Now, he's a guy. I only lost about 40 :-( But that was with very little change in habits.
You have to drink LOTS of water. Or you kidneys can't process the extra protein.
Hope that gets you started - good luck!